1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a learning support method, a system and a computer-readable medium storing a learning support program. More particularly, the present invention relates to a learning support method, a system and a computer-readable medium storing a learning support program in an information providing system which includes an information providing server, an information terminal which requests, receives and displays information, and a communication means such as a computer network which connects them. In the information providing system, the information terminal sends a request for information selected by a user to the information providing server. The information providing server selects information based on control information which is provided beforehand and sends the information to the information terminal. The information providing system may be, for example, an information providing system using the Internet, such as the WWW (World-Wide Web) system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the following, a hypertext system will be described as a first conventional technique. The hypertext system includes an information providing server which is a computer storing information and an information terminal which obtains and displays the information according to a user""s operation, the information server and the information terminal being connected via the Internet.
The technique is described, for example, in T. Berners-Lee et al., xe2x80x9cThe World-Wide Webxe2x80x9d, Communications of the ACM, vol. 37(8), pp. 76-82.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show an example of an information structure which is provided by the information providing server and a display example. The information shown in FIG. 1A describes not only text information which is visualized by the information terminal but also information which is not visualized and is associated with a part of the text information. The information is called markup information. Usually, software for obtaining and displaying information which is called a browser is used in an information terminal in an information providing system which uses the WWW. The browser displays a page in a rectangular region in a display screen which is called a window. As shown in FIG. 1B, an underscore is drawn at a part where associated information exists. When the user selects information, for example, by clicking a mouse on the part which is underscored in a page in a window, another page corresponding to the part is displayed in the window. For example, when the user clicks on a part xe2x80x9chow to readxe2x80x9d in FIG. 1B, a page (read.html) describing how to write a mail is displayed in a window 1. The user can obtain necessary information one after another by carrying out the above-mentioned operation repeatedly.
In the following, the markup information will be described taking the WWW as an example. The markup information is distinguished from the visualized text information by bracketing with descriptors xe2x80x9c less than xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c greater than xe2x80x9d. The markup information is placed before and after a part of text information (which will be called element information) which is associated with other information. A part before the element is called a start tag, and a part after the element is called an end tag (The end tag may be omitted according to the kind of the tag). The start tag describes one tag identifier, zero or more numbers of attribute names and/or an attribute name and a value of the attribute name in a format shown below.
 less than tag identifier attribute attribute=value greater than  The end tag is formatted as follows.
 less than /tag identifier greater than 
There are various kinds of tag identifiers. A representative example is an anchor tag. The anchor tag indicates that there exists another page which is associated with an element (which is called an anchor) corresponding to the anchor tag. The identifier is xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d.
As an attribute of the anchor tag, there is an xe2x80x9chrefxe2x80x9d attribute which indicates a location of the associated information. A format called xe2x80x9cURLxe2x80x9d shown below is widely used as a format of the value of the xe2x80x9chrefxe2x80x9d attribute.
href=communication protocol name://server name/page identifier
The communication protocol shown above indicates a processing method in which an information providing server and an information terminal transmit/receive information. In FIGS. 1A and 1B, HTTP which is widely used in the WWW is specified. The attribute value which is specified by the href attribute is also called link information. When a link is specified by the page identifier and when the user selects the link, a next page is displayed in the same window from the top of the page.
The href attribute also has a following format.
href=communication protocol name://server name/page identifier# location identifier
When a page is specified by using the location identifier, the page is displayed in the window from a location specified by the location identifier. FIGS. 2A-2C shows the examples. When a link show xe2x80x9chow to writexe2x80x9d in information shown in FIG. 2A is selected, the information terminal obtains a dictionary page (dictionary.html) shown in FIG. 2B. Then, the information terminal displays a page in the window 1 from a location indicated by  less than a name=write greater than  which is included in the page information. According to a browser, a scroll bar is displayed for indicating that more information exists in the upper or lower part of the page.
An execution result of a program executed in a server can be obtained by specifying a program name and an argument to be executed in the server in an href format shown below:
href=communication protocol name://server name/cgi-bin/program name ? variable1=value1 and variable2=value2.
When such a URL is specified, the information providing server executes a program specified by the program name with an argument xe2x80x9cspecified variable=valuexe2x80x9d and sends the execution result to the information terminal.
A target attribute is another attribute of the anchor tag. The target attribute is an attribute for controlling a window in which a page is displayed. The target attribute will be described with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B. When a user clicks on a link of xe2x80x9chow to writexe2x80x9d in which a target attribute is specified, a window 2 opens (the name of the window does not appear in actuality) and information on how to write an E-mail is displayed in the window 2. At the time, the window 1 does not change.
Next, a form tag will be described with reference to FIGS. 4A and 4B. The form tag is often used in conjunction with an input tag. The form tag is used for executing a program by using a user input value and returning the execution result. As shown in the figures, a program name xe2x80x9csearchxe2x80x9d is specified with an action attribute of the form tag. Input tags are within the form tags. The input tag is for receiving a user input. Forms for receiving the user input can be selected with a type attribute. For example, a text field for inputting a text is displayed by using xe2x80x9ctype=textxe2x80x9d and a button is displayed by using xe2x80x9ctype=submitxe2x80x9d. When a user input a text in the text field and clicks on the submit button, the information server is requested to execute a program xe2x80x9csearchxe2x80x9d with an argument xe2x80x9ckey=[user input]xe2x80x9d. Then, the execution result is displayed on the information terminal.
In the following, an concrete application of a conventional first technique will be described. There are many textbooks constructed by using the conventional first technique in the WWW. As a characteristic of a structure of the text book, the text book has a hierarchical structure which includes a chapter, a section and a paragraph, and the text book has a contents page and an index page showing the structure. In addition, the text book includes a search link, a reference link to other part of the text book or to a different text book.
The text book is described by using the above-mentioned tags.
Next, a personal adapting type hypertext system, which is a second conventional method, will be described.
The above-mentioned first conventional method can not be used for education since appropriate information corresponding to user""s circumstances can not be provided. The personal adapting type hypertext system changes providing information contents so that the information contents are adapted to the user""s personal information. The personal-adapting type hypertext system is disclosed in Japanese patent application No. 7-313053, xe2x80x9cInformation providing method and information providing systemxe2x80x9d, and Japanese patent application No. 9-124309, xe2x80x9cInformation providing method, system and a computer-readable medium storing information providing programxe2x80x9d. The personal adapting type hypertext system can be called a web-based training system.
A configuration of the personal adapting type hypertext system will be described with reference to FIG. 5. The personal adapting type hypertext system includes an information terminal 30, 40, an information providing server 10 with contents 20 and a computer network 50, which are also included in the normal hypertext system, and a learning support server 60.
The learning support server 60 includes a request receiving part 61, a file searching/inferring part 62, a scene requesting/obtaining part 63, a scene analyzing/link rewriting part 64 and a sending part 65. A history information file 70, a learning control information file 80 and a link rewriting file 85 are connected to the file searching/inferring part 62. The learning control information file 80 includes a scenario definition file and a target definition file. A scenario in the scenario definition file is used for determining a display order of information when a user learns something. The scenario generally has a hierarchical structure including a chapter, a section, a paragraph and the like. The learning target file includes a concept which a user is to learn, in which the concept is represented by a hierarchical structure.
In the following, the operation of the learning support server 60 will be described.
When request receiving part 61 receives a request from the information terminal, the file searching/inferring part 62 infers a scene which is to be displayed next on the basis of user""s learning progress (history information) and learning control information (material structure). Then, the scene requesting/obtaining part 63 requests the inferred scene to the information server and obtains it. The scene analyzing/link rewriting part 64 analyzes the obtained scene and rewrites a link according to the link rewriting file 85. The sending part 65 sends the rewritten scene to the information terminal.
The learning support server 60 stores pages which the user watched and learning targets which the user understood in the history information file 70. When the user requests a next page, the learning support server 60 determines appropriate information for providing to the user based on the above-mentioned scenario definition file and target definition file.
Next, the link rewriting definition file 85 will be described with reference to FIG. 6. The link rewriting definition file 85 has control information for rewriting a link name when the link name which is specified as an original link name exists in a page specified by a page name. More specifically, when a link which has an anchor name of xe2x80x9cnext screenxe2x80x9d exists, generally the link points to a specific page. If the link is converted in advance to a xe2x80x9cNEXTxe2x80x9d command which requests a next screen appropriate for the progress of learning of the user, the user can receive an appropriate page.
In addition, the learning support server supports various learning support commands such as an xe2x80x9cINDEXxe2x80x9d command which enables the terminal to display the table of learning contents including the user""s progress, and a xe2x80x9cDICxe2x80x9d command which provides a dictionary function in accordance with the user""s progress. Each command can be applied to anchors such as xe2x80x9ctable of contentsxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9csearchxe2x80x9d which may be commonly seen on a hypertext of the WWW.
By virtue of the link rewriting file 85, it becomes possible to covert an anchor such as a tag (xe2x80x9cnext pagexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cprevious pagexe2x80x9d and the like), an index and a term into a command for intellectual support, in which the tag or the index corresponds to a table of contents or a structure of a text book on the WWW which is constructed by using the conventional first technique. As a result, a page appropriate for a user""s progress can be provided.
The process by the learning support server will be described with reference to FIG. 7. First, the user sends a command (for example, xe2x80x9cNEXTxe2x80x9d) to the learning support server 60 in step 11. The server 60 checks the scenario definition file and the target definition file against the user""s learning history thus far in the history information file 70 in step 12, and determines a screen which will be displayed next in step 13.
Then, the learning support server 60 obtains the determined screen from the information providing server in place of the user""s terminal in step 14 and 15. The learning support server 60 analyzes the obtained file in step 16, and, for example, rewrites link information into a command for the learning support server 60 in step 17, when there is an applicable item in a command conversion file, and sends the command to the user in step 18.
According to the above-mentioned process, the user can receive information appropriate for the user""s learning progress while the user reads the same visualized information as normal hypertext information and the information terminal sends various commands to the learning support server.
According to the above-mentioned second method, it becomes possible to provide a page appropriate for the user""s progress by converting a normal link into a learning support command.
However, a sophisticated personal adapting function provided by the learning support system can not be fully utilized by only such a link conversion capability.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a learning support method, a system and a computer readable medium storing a learning support program, in which sophisticated learning support services which the learning support server provides can be used by using a tag rewriting rule which is described with a simple description, history information can be obtained, and a sophisticated user interface design, for example, for controlling a window which is indispensable for learning support can be realized.
The above object of the present invention is achieved by a learning support method in a learning support system which includes an information providing server, a learning support server and an information terminal which are connected via a communication means including a computer network, the learning support method comprising the steps of:
obtaining from the information providing server, by the learning support server, information which is to be provided to the information terminal according to history information of a user when the information terminal requests the learning support server to send information;
performing, by the learning support server, a changing process for adding control information necessary for learning support on the information, and providing the information to the information terminal,
wherein, when the information which is obtained by the learning support server from the information providing server is hypertext information, the changing process comprises the steps of:
retrieving tag information which corresponds to a condition part from the information by using a tag rewriting rule, the tag rewriting rule including the condition part used for retrieving tag information which is to be changed and an action part which describes a process corresponding to the condition part, the tag information being control information of the hypertext information;
changing the tag information according to the process in the action part; and
providing information in which the tag information is changed to the information terminal.
According to the above-mentioned invention, since tag information as well as link information can be changed, a target attribute for operating a window can be controlled, in which the target attribute is an attribute other than the link attribute.
The above-mentioned method may further comprise the steps of:
using a regular expression described by a pattern description language for describing the condition part or the action part;
retrieving the tag information corresponding to the condition part described by the regular expression from the obtained information;
performing the changing process on the tag information according to the action part described by the regular expression.
According to the above-mentioned invention, since the regular expression can be used, various conversion of tag information can be realized.
In the above-mentioned method, the action part may include a command for carrying out a process, the learning support method comprising the step of:
executing the command for changing a pattern corresponding to the condition part.
According to the above-mentioned invention, since a command can be specified in the tag rewriting rule, deleting a link or providing a dictionary function or the like can be realized.
In the above-mentioned learning support method, the condition part of the tag rewriting rule may include an information name, a tag name, an attribute name and an anchor name.
The above object of the present invention is also achieved by a learning support system which includes an information providing server, a learning support server and an information terminal which are connected via a communication means including a computer network, the learning support server comprising:
means for obtaining, from the information providing server, information which is to be provided to the information terminal according to history information of a user when the information terminal requests the learning support server to send information; and
changing means for performing a changing process for adding control information necessary for learning support on the information;
the changing means comprising:
a tag rewriting rule which includes a condition part used for retrieving tag information which is to be changed and an action part which describes a process corresponding to the condition part, the tag information being control information of hypertext information;
tag retrieving means for retrieving tag information which corresponds to the condition part from the information which is obtained by the learning support server from the information providing server when the information is hypertext information;
tag changing means for changing the tag information according to the process in the action part; and
information providing means for providing information in which the tag is changed to the information terminal.
According to the above-mentioned invention, a learning support system applicable for carrying out the above-mentioned learning support method.
The above object of the present invention is also achieved by a computer readable medium storing program code for causing a computer as a learning support server to support learning in a learning support system which includes an information providing server, the learning support server and an information terminal which are connected via a communication means including a computer network, the computer readable medium comprising:
program code means for obtaining, from the information providing server, information which is to be provided to the information terminal according to history information of a user when the information terminal requests the learning support server to send information; and
changing program code means for performing a changing process for adding control information necessary for learning support on the information;
the changing program code means comprising:
program code means for storing a tag rewriting rule which includes a condition part used for retrieving tag information which is to be changed and an action part which describes a process corresponding to the condition part, the tag information being control information of hypertext information;
tag retrieving program code means for retrieving tag information which corresponds to the condition part from the information which is obtained by the learning support server from the information providing server when the information is hypertext information;
tag changing program code means for changing the tag information according to the process in the action part; and
information providing program code means for providing information in which the tag is changed to the information terminal.
According to the above-mentioned invention, a computer readable medium storing a learning support program which executes a process of the learning support server can be provided.